Filed under: Coupe , Performance , Toyota , Tesla , Electric Rumors of a revival of the Toyota Supra and MR2 have been swirling for years right up until just this week when high-level Toyota employees all but confirmed their return. But now The Detroit Bureau has put together news from different sources suggesting that the next Supra might be all electric. The report cites recent comments from Toyota senior executives hinting at plans to work with Tesla on a new joint project. The FT-HS Concept (shown above) seems a logical inspiration for a new Supra. And on the other side of the equation is Tesla’s design chief Franz von Holzhausen who was quoted last year saying his company was looking at its next project, probably a sports car, that would follow next year’s intro of the Model X . He went on to suggest the car would compete directly with BMW’s 3 Series , which, in coupe form, could be a worthy competitor to a Supra as well. Such a sporty, up-market car could easily take advantage of the Model S platform while the electric drivetrain would fit with what Toyota’s chief engineer Tetsuya Tada says is an effort to balance a green image with products that offer “driving fun.” Last week , Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company was already working on “a few other variants of the Model S” that would be “pretty exciting.” Toyota’s Tada says there’s no target date for introduction of either a Supra or MR2, but he would expect development to take up to five years to engineer the pair and for the Supra to take priority over the MR2. Supra successor may be all-electric sourced from Tesla; MR2 returning too? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

Filed under: Technology , Audi , Chrysler , Toyota Apple expects nine different carmakers to begin including a “Siri button” on their steering wheels within the next 12 months, the company announced this week. Of course, the news came as a surprise to some of the carmakers, according to Business Insider . After Apple announced plans to further integrate it’s Siri voice recognition software to a button on the steering wheel, some carmakers said they were unaware of those plans. Audi told Fast Company , which contacted all nine carmakers mentioned by Apple, that it was not sure if the project could be completed in a year. A Chrysler spokesman said the company did not have any plans to announce anything. Toyota was equally as vague: “(T)here are no particular applications planned at this time.” Building a Siri button certainly makes sense and, no doubt, will happen in the coming years. It’s also smart business. Instead of an automaker spending money developing voice recognition software, let Apple do it and integrate that system into a vehicle. Already, carmakers have moved to integrate smartphones into cars, putting apps on phones onto center console screens and finding ways to piggyback services from a phone into the car. USB ports on a car are simply expected nowadays.

Filed under: Car Buying , Crossover , Toyota , Electric Announced almost two years ago , Toyota finally gave us some more details about the was the all-electric RAV4 EV will be sold to the general public during the 26th Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles today. The important number? The MSRP for what Toyota calls a “fully equipped” RAV4 EV is $49,800 and will be available before the end of the year. Toyota says the RAV4 EV’s range is 100 miles and that the car will charge from empty in approximately six hours on a 240V/40A charger. The new RAV4 EV has LED and halogen headlights and it has special “environmental blue” color emblems on the outside. The vehicle will be made at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Inc., plant in Woodstock, Ontario. The first generation of the new RAV4 EV was unveiled back at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show . Our First Drive report is here . With a battery and powertrain designed by Tesla , the new RAV4 EV certainly appears to be one of the new breed of compliance EVs . We had heard that the RAV4 EV will be lease only, but the official press release says the car “will go on sale in late summer 2012 through select dealers, initially in four major California metropolitan markets.” Those markets are Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County and San Diego and the news matches the rumor we heard last year, that sales about be limited to California.

Filed under: Car Buying , Toyota , Earnings/Financials Toyota can attribute much of its uptick in sales last month to fleets . While the automaker saw its sales leap by 7.5 percent compared to a year earlier, Newsday.com reports Toyota sold 47 percent more cars and trucks to fleet customers in the U.S. than in January 2011. Without the fleet sales, the improvement would have been less than one percent. All told, rental companies accounted for 93 percent of the automaker’s fleet sales in January, with the remainder going to other organizations. Toyota and other Japanese automakers have always been reticent to embrace fleet sales. Doing so is not only generally less profitable than individual consumer sales, but can also lead to degraded brand image and resale value. Last month, Ford was cited for having 45 percent of the company’s Focus going toward fleets. Toyota, meanwhile, says the news isn’t the start of a trend. When Toyota factories were hobbled by earthquake and tsunami activity in Japan last year, the automaker put a stop to fleet sales altogether to keep its dealerships fed.

Filed under: Motorsports , Truck , Toyota , Racing Arguably more than any other driver, Kimi Raikkonen has a penchant for breaking with convention and forging his own path. The Finnish driver started out in F1 amid protests over his relative lack of experience – having contested fewer than a dozen professional lower-level races in his career – and finished 10th in his debut championship. The next season, he was driving for McLaren , the season after that he won his first grand prix, and within just a few years was crowned world champion for Ferrari . And when that got boring, he made an unprecedented moved to the World Rally Championship . But that’s apparently wearing thin on a driver not known for sitting still, so off he goes to NASCAR . We first broke the news of Kimi’s plans back in March, and a few days later already had confirmation of his contract with Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) to debut in the Camping World Truck Series – the entry point into NASCAR racing. Now he’s set to make his oval-track debut this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and this is the truck he’ll be driving. The No. 15 Toyota Tundra is being fielded by KBM for Kimi’s ICE1RACING team, and features sponsorship from – wait for it – Perky Jerky. The dried meat snack packs guarana (a plant with twice the caffeine of coffee) and was apparently invented when some guys spilled energy drink on their beef jerky while trapped on a ski lift.

Jacksonville Results HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (March 19, 2011) – With the horrific events of the past week in Japan continuing to create new challenges seemingly every day without rest, the Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGRMX Team arrived in Jacksonville, Fla. with these special patches sewn on the back panels of Justin Brayton’s and Davi Millsaps’ SHIFT pants. The letters read “Kibo,” which means to have hope. Joe Gibbs Racing continues to keep everyone suffering in Japan in their prayers, including racing partners Toyota, Yamaha, and RK/Excel, all of which have parent companies headquartered in Japan. One of the newer stops on the tour, EverBank Field has only been on the circuit three years. The Muscle Milk/Toyota/JGRMX Team was on hand for Friday’s Press Day event, with Justin Brayton and Davi Millsaps speaking with several local news reporters about the race beginning at 5:00 a.m. on Friday. An example of one of the subsequent features can be viewed via the following link: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/196820/3/Update-VIDEO–Supercross-Revs-Up-at-EverBank-Field. After avoiding the dreaded last chance qualifier (LCQ) all season long, Justin Brayton had the misfortune to crash during the first lap of his heat race forcing him to attempt to qualify from the LCQ with a badly bruised knee.

TUNDRA ON TOP AT TRACK ‘TOO TOUGH TO TAME’ — Four Top-10s For Toyota at Darlington DARLINGTON, S.C. (March 12, 2011) – Kasey Kahne earned his first Tundra win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Darlington Raceway. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) and NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) had the weekend off allowing Kahne to drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) at the historic South Carolina track. In addition to Kahne, three more Tundra drivers earned top-10 finishes in Saturday night’s race. NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES (NCWTS) Kahne earned his first victory driving for KBM and third NCWTS win of his career Saturday night at Darlington Raceway. Kahne started second in the KBM No. 18 Toyota Tundra and led 95 (of 147) laps at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval to earn his third career NCWTS win in only four career starts. “I came here this weekend wanting to win — that was the plan,” said Kahne, following the race. “This is a tough series. These guys do an awesome job and that restart there with Todd (Bodine) — our truck was really good once I could get rolling.

KAHNE CLAIMS CHECKERS AT DARLINGTON — Earns Third Career Truck Win in Four Starts DARLINGTON, S.C. (March 12, 2011) — Kasey Kahne earned his first victory driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) and third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) win of his career Saturday night at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway. Kahne started second in the KBM No. 18 Toyota Tundra and led 95 (of 147) laps at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval to earn his third career NCWTS win in only four career starts. “I came here this weekend wanting to win — that was the plan,” said Kahne, following the race. “This is a tough series. These guys do an awesome job and that restart there with Todd (Bodine) — our truck was really good once I could get rolling. He tried to get me all the way up to the wall and I think he got himself loose by trying to squish me into the wall. We had a good run down the back and some good laps after that. It was a solid run.

WORSHAM PUTS TOYOTA IN TOP FUEL WINNER’S CIRCLE FOR SECOND STRAIGHT RACE AT GATORNATIONALS GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 13, 2011) – Del Worsham edged Tony Schumacher by .004 seconds on Sunday to win the prestigious NHRA Gatornationals in just his second race since returning to the Top Fuel ranks after campaigning Funny Cars for the past 16 years. The win comes in Worsham’s first-ever Top Fuel final and catapults him into the Top Fuel points lead after registering a runner-up finish at the season opener at Pomona in February. He defeated Brandon Bernstein, Antron Brown and Spencer Massey before defeating Schumacher in the first-ever on-track meeting between the two veteran racers. Cruz Pedgregon’s Snap-On Tools Toyota Camry Solara fell just short of making it a Toyota sweep for the weekend after he advanced to the finals in Funny Car for the third time in the last seven races. The finals appearance pushed Pedregon into fourth-place overall in the championship hunt, just 14 points out of second. It continues a resurgence that has seen him earn the top qualifier position at the season-opening Winternationals, as well as win two of the final five Countdown races to close out last season. In addition to Worsham’s victory, Al-Anabi Racing teammate Larry Dixon also had a strong weekend advancing to the semi-finals where he eventually fell to Schumacher. Antron Brown and Shawn Langdon each won their opening rounds before being eliminated in the second round, while Morgan Lucas – winner at Pomona – fell in the first round. Toyota-sponsored Top Fuel drivers will occupy five of the top-six positions in the point standings entering the third round of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, April 1-3.

Indianapolis Results HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (March 13, 2011) – A huge crowd of 60,789 was in attendance for round 10 of the AMA Supercross Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind. The fans not in the stadium were able to watch the action live on SPEED. All season Davi Millsaps and Justin Brayton have been fortunate to transfer into the main events from their heat races skipping the dreaded last chance qualifier, and last night was no exception as they both went directly to the main from the heats. When the gate fell for the main event Brayton and Millsaps began the race inside the top-10. Millsaps charged into fifth position with Brayton just behind during the early laps. Millsaps slid out on the loose track surface briefly going down. After re-mounting, still in the top-10 he came up short over a triple jump jamming his wrist and thumb. With more than half the race to go, Millsaps soldiered through the remaining laps to earn 11th. Meanwhile, by lap eight, Brayton had raced into fifth position.